POOR AND NON-WHITE: FORCIBLE EVICTIONS RAISE CONCERNS TO HAVE WHS DESIGNATION REMOVED IN PANAMA

From the Panama News: Jan. 2005
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_11/issue_01/letters_01.html


San Felipe residents protest attempts to displace them


cc: UNESCO, Paris, France
ICC-ROM-Rome, Italy
IUCN-Gland, Switzerland
L`OCPM-Quebec, Canada

We are the residents of Historic Center of San Felipe of Panama City, the capital of Panama, also known as the "Casco Viejo." Our people are very peaceful families and quiet people who are facing forced evictions by every type of subterfuge, chicanery and trickery.

Since our community has been declared a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1997, over half of the official census populations from the 1990 to the 2000 census has been forced to move or been forcibly evicted.

Since 2000, we figure that another 2700 individuals have been forcible removed or forced out by all sorts of trickery, threats and chicanery.

We need your help in ascertaining our social and economic rights as poor and working people with a right to live in a historic center world heritage site and seek socio-economic technical advice in finding ways to create training in artisan and micro business skills in learning how to address the Metropolitan Development Plans and new tourism orientations towards international cruise ship seasonal visitors. We understand that UNESCO has about $180 million allocated for the Panama City Historic Center area here. We want to elect our representatives to sit in the planning sessions for the use of these funds and their implementation.

We as a neighborhood NGO would like your technical expertise in writing grants and projects to use said funds for the benefit the poor and working class residents of our Historic Center of San Felipe. The idea would be to be able to eke out incomes and enough to cover the reconstructions and restorations of the wooden heritage and other era buildings within the designated world heritage site.

We have denounced and condemned for years --- in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 --- the forcible evictions of the poorest working people of all ages from their homes to UNESCO, Paris, France; ICOMOS-Paris, France; ICCROM-Rome, Italy; and L`OCPM-Quebec, Canada!

We propose and petition to have a UNESCO monitoring office, here in San Felipe, Casco Viejo, the Historic Center of Panama City, Republic of Panama.

We petition you to have San Felipe removed from the list of World Heritage Sites for the flagrant violations of HR and forcible evictions of our residents, particularly the old pensioners and the low income working poor and for the destruction of the historic sites, referring as our legal basis to Section E, Articles 36-47 to remove a world heritage site.We petition for your help! Your guidance! Your training in grant writing and setting up a MONITORING OFFICE in San Felipe. We need your help in getting resident representation on local bodies having jurisdiction over the historic site.

Furthermore, we plead for help: SOS... SOS...



Anibal Chacón González
President, The Association of Residents of San Felipe